At two o'clock that afternoon, David arrived at the county detention center, accompanied by his personal attorney, Marcus Vance.
The visitor booth was separated by a thick pane of scratch-resistant bulletproof glass, equipped with heavy metal intercom handsets on either side.
When the heavy steel door on the inmate side buzzed open, Chloe was escorted inside by a female corrections officer.
The pristine white fur coat and the elegant red evening gown were gone, replaced by a drab, oversized orange prison jumpsuit with stencil lettering across the back.
Her hair was unwashed, her makeup smeared into gray streaks beneath her puffy, bloodshot eyes, and her hands were linked together by a belly chain.
She picked up the plastic receiver with shaking fingers, pressing her face close to the glass.
"David! Oh, thank God, David!" Chloe wept, her voice distorted through the metallic speaker. "You have to get me out of this disgusting place! The guards won't listen to me, the other women in here are violent monsters, and they took all my jewelry!"
David sat completely motionless on his metal stool, holding the telephone receiver against his ear without saying a single word.
"David, please talk to me!" she pleaded, banging her shackled wrists against the stainless steel shelf. "My father's lawyers are filing an emergency appeal, but they said you have to drop the private complaint! Tell the prosecutor it was a domestic accident! Tell them we're handling it privately within the family!"
David looked at her face, searching for a single trace of remorse, a single tear shed for the four-year-old child she had left to die in the snow.
There was nothing.
Only the frantic, selfish panic of a predator caught in her own trap.
"I didn't come here to bail you out, Chloe," David said in a flat, monotone voice that cut through her hysterical babbling like a razor.
Chloe froze, her jaw hanging open. "What?"
"I came here to have you served," David said calmly.
Marcus Vance stepped forward, sliding a thick manila packet through the narrow document slot beneath the partition.
"These are the emergency divorce petitions," David said, pointing to the paperwork. "Accompanied by an immediate petition for the total annulment of our prenuptial agreement under the felony domestic endangerment clause."
"No! You can't do this to me!" Chloe shrieked, slamming her palm against the glass partition. "I am your wife! You promised me half the property! You promised me the house on Meadowbrook!"
"You will receive nothing, Chloe," David replied, standing up from the stool. "Every cent of your personal accounts has been frozen pending civil restitution for Leo's medical treatment and emotional trauma."
"David! Don't walk away from me! David!" she screamed, thrashing against the partition until two guards seized her shoulders and forced her toward the rear door.
David hung up the plastic telephone, turned his back on the screaming woman, and walked out into the cold winter daylight without looking back once.